Chapter 19

Dorian came to my office a few days later, something obviously on his mind. I suggested we walk, I had a crew in, building a pond on the back of the property. It was supposed to be built for the horses we hadn't gotten yet. Tory looked at it and grinned. "Skinny dipping." Cathy looked at it and smirked. "Water sex." I looked at it and thought "catfish," but I was smart enough not to say it.

We talked a little about the Issabella movie. We were going into preproduction planning in two weeks. We'd already got commitments from a lot of the crew that worked on Grolar, including the director. Target for filming was three to five months from now. He reached down, grabbed a rock, and skipped it across the water.

"Talked to Eric lately?"

I hadn't, not since the party. I'd left a couple of messages about the new film, but he hadn't gotten back to me. I found that odd. I told Dorian I hadn't.

"Good," he sighed, "that means you probably don't know."

"Know what?"

"A friend of mine took me aside just before I left the shoot, and asked me if I was doing any more work for Two Fools Productions. I told him as a matter of fact we were talking about doing a project soon. He hemmed around until I finally asked what was bothering him. Did you know Eric is making porn films, under your company name?"

"WHAT?"

"I checked. He's done one starring Savanna. And it gets worse. He's in it with her. I looked it up, and it's pretty gross. I thought you should know."

I sat down on the new dock, feet dangling, thankful that the pond hadn't filled completely. What the hell was Eric doing? I knew something was off about him lately, maybe I should have been paying more attention. I needed to get in touch with him. Now. I took my phone out and called. Two numbers were disconnected, and I kept getting voicemail on the other. I left one, telling him to get in contact with me as soon as possible, it was urgent.

The girls weren't happy about it either. "You of all people know we don't condemn porn or the people that make it generally, but we know first hand that it can taint everything you do in later life. How many people do you think won't go see, for instance, the new Issabella movie, if they think it's been made by a porn company? I'll answer that, a lot. The biggest fans Issabella has are most likely little old ladies who use the books to fulfill their fantasies, they wouldn't be able to enjoy the movie knowing we were sullying her name."

"Why is he doing it? Yes, you can still make money off porn, but he'd have to make hundreds to come anywhere close to what he made just off Grolar, and by movie standards, the film was only moderately successful. We think you should check with the lawyers, honey. We know he's your friend, but really, you did seventy-five per cent of the work on Grolar, at least. Maybe it's time to part company, at least professionally." This was from Cathy, always the most pragmatic of the two, but Tory agreed, as did Leah and Dorian.

Two days later I gave up trying to call him, but I had tracked him down to L A. I made arrangements to fly out and physically confront him. Our lawyer was a little upset over the information I'd given him. He'd mostly written up our partnership agreement. "You guys weren't sure you'd ever make another movie, so Two Fools basically only existed for a short time. There is a clause in your agreement leaving the possibility of making more films, but for it to be legal you would have had to update it on a movie by movie basis. He has no legal right to film under your company name without express written agreement. Since I represent both of you, my best advice is get a business lawyer and thrash it out."

Dorian wanted to go with me, but I didn't think him being seen near a porn production would do his reputation any good. The girls either, for the same reason. They saw me off, warning me to be careful. I was surprised to see a very large man in a suit holding a card with my name on it when I got off the plane.

When I identified myself, he escorted me to a Lexus sedan, driven by an even larger man. "We've worked with Dorian before. He thought it might be a good idea for you to have a driver." When I looked at the other guy he just laughed. "We'll take turns."

I had a pretty interesting conversation with them as they drove me. They normally did security for movie stars and other high fliers, were combat trained, and carried weapons. They knew where we were going, and I was surprised when we pulled into the lot of an abandoned looking warehouse in a pretty rough neighborhood. There were a couple of dozen cars in the lot. Warehouse workers, I guessed.

Whe he started to get out I asked him what we were doing here. "This is where your partner makes his films." He pointed to a sign, so small it was barely noticeable, over one of the doors. Two Fools Films. Authorized Personnel Only. That was the cherry on top of the whipped cream on my anger cake. Before they could stop me. I had stormed past them and banged on the door, after I found it locked.

"Go away. This is a closed set on private property. Leave, or I call the cops." I followed the tinny sounding voice to a small speaker mounted under a camera, over the door.

"Good. If you don't call them I will. That's my company logo over the door, and I'm pretty sure I didn't authorize anything I see. I'm sure the police will be glad to listen to any explanation you'd like to give him. I might even ask them to inspect the premises, just to assure me there's nothing illegal going on." I pulled out the phone and held it up to the camera. "Your choice, but one way or another, I'm coming in that building. You tell Eric that Will Melton is outside, and he'd like a few minutes of his time. You got five minutes."

Eight minutes went by, and I nodded at one of my guards. He punched a few numbers into his phone, and held ten fingers up. The cruiser was just pulling in when the door opened a crack. The short Hispanic man looked nervous but determined. He was built like a brick, muscles streching his tight tee shirt, and he had a pretty impressive automatic on his hip.

"Look man, we don't need no trouble here. You just go back to your hotel, and Eric will call you when he gets time. He's kind of busy right now. And I ain't asking, I'm telling. Go away."

I had one of my 'drivers' beside me, and he was grinning. The other guy had slid along the wall, keeping out of view of the camera as much as he could. In a quick but practiced move, he grabbed the man, dragging him outside befoe he knew what was going on. Automatically reaching for his weapon, he froze, looking down the barrel of three guns, two from polive officers, and one from one of my bodyguards.

"Shit Jack, what kind of mess are you in?" This from one of the cops, still holding his weapon as his partner disarmed the Mexican guy, and handcuffed him. My biggest bodyguard just shrugged.